428 Life of Audubon. 



on four sticks. Among the medicines 1 saw a number of 

 calabooses, eight or ten skulls of otters, two large buffalo- 

 skulls with the horns on, some sticks, and other magical 

 implements, with the use of which no one but a great 

 Medicine is acquainted. There lay crouched on the floor 

 a lousy Indian, wrapped in a dirty blanket, with nothing 

 but his head sticking out : the guide spoke to him, but 

 he made no reply. At the foot of one of the props that 

 support this large house lay a parcel, which I took for a 

 bundle of buffalo-robes, but directly it moved, and the 

 emaciated body of a poor blind Indian crept out of it ; 

 he was shrivelled, and the guide made signs that he was 

 about to die. We shook hands with him, and he pressed 

 mine, as if glad of the sympathy of even a stranger ; he 

 had a pipe and tobacco-box, and soon lay down again. 

 As we left this abode of mysteries, I told the guide I was 

 anxious to see the inside of one of their common dwell- 

 ings, and he led us through the mud to his own lodge, 

 which had an entrance like the other. All the lodges 

 have a sort of portico that leads to the door, and on the 

 top of most of them I observed skulls of buffaloes. This 

 lodge contained the wife and children of the guide and 

 another man, whom I took for his son-in-law ; all these, 

 except the man, were in the outer lodge, squatting on the 

 ground, and the children skulked out of the way as we 

 approached. Nearly equi-distant from each other were a 

 kind of berths, raised two feet above the ground, made of 

 leather, and with square apertures for the sleepers. The 

 man of whom I have spoken was lying down in one of 

 these. I walked up to him, and after disturbing his seem- 

 ingly happy slumbers, shook his hand, and he made signs 

 for me to sit down. I did so, and he arose, and squatted 

 himself near us ; and taking a large spoon made of a 

 buffalo's horn, handed it to a young girl, who brought a 

 large wooden bowl filled with pemmican mixed with corn 



